It’s funny isn’t it. Banner advertising has been around for quite a while now but there still seems to be little done towards standardising how they work.

It is not unusual for us to receive completely different specs for each placement in a campaign. With most of these it’s possible to just use the lowest common denominator. This works fine for filesize, duration etc. However it does not help when different spellings of the clickTag variable are needed.

Before flash got case-sensitive (flash 7, AS2) it wasn’t really an issue whether it was called ‘clicktag’ or ‘ClickTAG’. Now however if you are coding up your buttons with the wrong casing then you have some pretty broken banners on your hands.

Hopefully one day we will have a standard format of doing this, until then we will just have to cater for all different variations, which isn’t actually that hard. All we need to do is look at the most common variations, see which one’s actually got any data in it and then use that one. All this can be done with just one simple if statement:

bttn_hotspot.onPress = function () {

//–Go through common spelling and check if there’s any value, if there is then assign it to the Link variable
if (clickTag) {

Link = clickTag;

}
if (ClickTag) {

Link = ClickTag;

}
if (clickTAG) {

Link = clickTAG;

}
//–If one of the spellings had a value then fire off the link variable
if (clickTag || ClickTag || clickTAG) {

getURL (Link, “_blank”);

}

};

BRIEF VERSION (if you’re in a rush)

Flash e-brochures are nothing but gimmicks. Properly made PDF’s are the future.

FULL VERSION

There’s been a real boom in these page turning flash e-brochures lately and it seems that every one can’t wait to jump on the band wagon. I know because our clients regularly contact us because they want one, or they have been contacted by a company wanting to sell them one.

If, in the back of your head, there’s a voice saying; e-brochure, what the hell is that, then here’s an example of one of the better ones.

Ok. So now if we take a step back and really think about what an e-brochure should be.

It should be easy to use. Even for technophobes

It should be easy to read.

It should be easy to print. And the printout should look like a brochure and not a website.

And crucially, it should be a link between the printed brochure and the content rich website.

Now. In all honesty. How many flash e-brochures have you seen that tick all these boxes (Please answer honestly now).

I mean these e-brochures are getting really advanced now. You can have links and video. You can zoom into the page. You can even print them out. And let’s not forget, the most important thing of all - you can turn the page. Wahoo.

Despite all these advanced feature however there’s still one big problem. What is it for? Really? It’s not a brochure and it’s not a website. Is it really a useful tool for your customers to engage with you? I mean, take the page turn off and what have you got if not a poor mans PDF.

You see, even if a PDF does not sound “WEB 2.0″ enough, it is still the most versatile portable document format around. It is easy to create and it is easy to use. And believe it or not you can even put video, flash animation, links and even forms in it. Sounds pretty “WEB 2.0″ now doesn’t it, except for the page turning of course.

Most importantly though a PDF e-brochure can actually be your offline brochure, with added extras such as links to the relevant page on your site, videos etc. And when your customers print it out, what they get is an exact copy of your offline brochure.By using, and properly taking advantage of all the benefits that the PDF format brings, then you will have an e-brochure that can act as the missing link between your website and your offline brochure, without trying to compete against them.

That is. If you can live with not getting to turn the pages yourself.